John Linder has more respect for liberal blogs than conservative ones

Rep. John Linder, a Republican from Duluth and a member of the steering committee that made the Calvert appointment, was the first congressional office targeted for calls by RedState.com. But Linder brushed off the online critics.

“I really don’t pay much attention to blogs,” he said. “You can say anything on those blogs without any attribution and get away with it.”

Liberal blogs have been influential, the Georgia lawmaker acknowledged. But he dismissed their conservative counterparts, saying, “I don’t pay any attention to them.”

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I think he was being a bit crass, and is reacting too harshly to being rightly called out for his support of Calvert, but ultimately I think his point is kinda accurate.

And that isn’t meant to be a shot at RedState or here, but just reflective of the successes national liberal blogs like MyDD and Daily Kos have had in recruiting candidates, supporting them, raising money and influencing votes of legislators at all levels of government. It has been my limited experience with conservative logs that they have had fewer successes or efforts in these realms, though that appears to be changing.

Now whether this is good or bad, is a whole different can of worms. Good in the sense that it shows politicians are connected, responsive and plugged in. Bad in the sense that, let’s face, the majority of bloggers and blog-readers represent the more right or more left factions of their parties and tend to be less representative of not just their community (or the country), but also their party as a whole (though this criticism, I would suspect, would be more accurate for the liberal blogs).

Maybe if he read ones where writers actaully had something to say, and are able to articulate and express themselves in an engaging, timely way, he’d like ’em better. As I often say… ignore the blogosphere, be it red, white, blue, black, green, at your own peril. Especially if you’re a politician.

I am certain that with all of the computer nerd brain power we have on this blog that someone can come up with an easy form to fill out (name, address, etc.) that upon filling out will fax a form letter on this issue to each of the members of the Steering Committee.

Coupled with the phone calls – it should be more effective in getting the Congressman’s attention.

Here goes the conservative bias…not telling the whole story. Linder never said that he did not trust conservative blogs. He acknowledged the influence of liberal blogs, and said he does not pay attention to conservative blogs. This does not mean he has respect for liberal blogs, but believes that they are influential. Why should he pay attention to them? This blogging stuff is for entertainment, not information. Find a quote from Linder, not a paraphrase, that has him saying that he does not trust conservative blogs and I will believe it. I do not like Linder, I do not trust people who write fiction…but it is irresponsible to put words in his mouth. If this is the behavior to expect from blogs…then Linder is right “You can say anything on those blogs without any attribution and get away with it.”

“I really don’t pay much attention to blogs,” he said. “You can say anything on those blogs without any attribution and get away with it.”

Linder is a fine one to talk about credibility after falsely-labelling himself as a conservative. The man goes across the country lying about his Fair????tax and then criticizes Erick on the grounds of credibility?

No wonder there is nothing Erick can do to save the GOP from itself and the likes of Linder, who have destroyed the credibility of the entire party.